Portlligat – Home of Salvador Dalí

Catalonia, the north-eastern part of Spain. It’s a beautiful area with lots of history and it was the home of Salvador Dalí. There’s a museum completely dedicated to him in Figueres. But there’s an interesting, yet smaller museum in Portlligat which attracted us instantly. Dalí once bought several small fishing cottages in the coastal village of Portlligat. He joined the small houses and made it his home. This is the place where he lived with his wife and where worked for a very long time. Nowadays the house is a museum, which can be visited year round. Almost everything in and around the house was left as it was, so it will give you a little insight into the life of Salvador Dalí.

Portlligat is a very small village, located directly on the Catalonian coast. A windy road with amazing views will bring you there from Figueres. On our way towards the coast this was one of those amazing views: in the distance you can see the church tower of Cadaqués. Portlligat is still hidden, on the left.

Our route ran through the village of Cadaqués, so here’s a close-up of the church.

After leaving Cadaqués we arrived at Portlligat in about 15 minutes. It’s a very small village and it is said that it can be really crowded with visitors. We visited it in November and there were only about twenty tourists around. It actually still is a small fishing village.

First we went to see the house of Dalí. The main part of the house can only be visited in small groups at a time. A tourguide will tell something about a room, you have a few minutes to look around and it’s on to the next room. Since we were with only a few people, there was no hurry.

The house was filled with artefacts he used as an inspiration for his paintings.

And then there was his work room, with a painting still waiting to be finished….

On to the master bed room, with the clogs of Salvador and his wife waiting patiently to be put on.

The oval room, designed and decorated by Salvador Dalí himself.

One of the amazing views from the house, they were an inspiration to Dalí in itself.

On the outside terraces there were some interesting ‘classic’ Dalí art works to be seen. They were perfectly places and made part of their surroundings.

One last view on the home of Salvador Dalí. It was amazing to visit it. Being in those rooms filled with artefacts and unfinished works felt like he could walk in any minute. Fascinating and a bit weird at the same time. The area around Portlligat is rough and beautiful at the same time. It isn’t hard to imagine it was a great inspiration to this famous painter and artist!

lives in the Netherlands. She grew up in a beautiful part of this country: the Veluwe, where she learned to love nature. She thinks travelling is not about ticking of another country on your travel list by driving through it in 3 weeks and only seeing the touristic highlights. Every country has so much more to offer, if you just take the time to stop and see.